Xianfeng five years, March.
The Qing army once again recruited troops to take Wuchang, which had previously been reoccupied by the Taiping Army. In this way, the Qing army wanted to go down the river and attack eastward, and the forces wanted to recover Wuchang, which was located on the eastern side of Yuezhou, and if the Qing army abandoned the siege of Wuchang and directly went east to attack Jiujiang, it would inevitably lead to a situation in which it was attacked by the enemy on its stomach and back.
It is precisely because of this that the Qing army has focused almost all its attention on Wuchang in the following time.
In order to ensure the foolproofness of Wuchang City, Shi Dakai personally led an army of 20,000 to aid Wuchang.
At this point, the strength of the troops in Wuchang City increased greatly, and the Taiping Army began to attack various strongholds north of Wuchang at the same time, trying to consolidate the northern defense line of Wuchang, and capturing Xiantao, Tianmen, Hanchuan, Yingcheng, and Suizhou all the way.
The situation near Wuchang was critical, Zeng Guofan was stationed in Nanchang, and Luo Zenan led an army to invade Wuchang, hoping to save the war. However, Luo Zenan's departure, although it could help Wuchang, made Zeng Guofan, who was stationed in Nanchang, begin to suffer enemies everywhere and be in danger.
Luo Zenan led his army from Nanchang to Wuchang, and almost swept through the Taiping Army outside Wuchang City, rampaged all the way to Wuchang. Seeing that the situation in Wuchang was very good, Hu Linyi hurriedly asked his general to lead three thousand warships to assist Luo Zenan, hoping to successfully take Wuchang. However, the Taiping Army general Wei Jun, who was stationed at paper mills, stopped Hu Linyi's army near Puxi, and Hu Linyi and Luo Zenan's army failed to meet the division smoothly.
After the Taiping General Yiwang Shi Dakai arrived in Wuchang, he led his troops to garrison Xianning, looked at the aggressive Luo Zenan, and ordered the troops to attack on the initiative in two ways:
Shi Dakai led a large army from Xianning to Chongyang and attacked Luo Zenan
Zeng Jinqian led a large army from Hanyang to Chongyang and attacked Luo Zenan
Luo Zenan retreated all the way because of the sudden attack of the taiping army's two large armies, not only abandoning Chongyang, but also moving the camp back to Yangloudong. However, at this crucial moment, Shi Dakai was ordered to enter Jiangxi, and the war situation in Hubei was slowly reversed by Luo Zenan because of Shi Dakai's departure.
After Shi Dakai left, Luo Zenan began to launch a new combat deployment:
A part of the army was stationed in Yuezhou to defend against the Taiping Army
Another part of the army took the opportunity to attack the outer strongholds of Wuchang and invade Wuchang
After arranging all this, Luo Zenan led the army to break through Puxi, Xianning, and Jinkou, the outer strongholds of Wuchang City were smoothly removed, the southern defensive points were forcibly opened by Luo Zenan, and the situation in Wuchang City began to reverse in an instant. The Taiping army, which was stationed north of Wuchang, hurried south to help, trying to save Wuchang.
However, as soon as the defenders of the strongholds north of Wuchang retreated, the entire battle situation underwent a huge change in an instant. As soon as the Qing army north of Wuchang saw the Taiping Army retreating south to reinforce Wuchang, the defenders from all over the country rushed south to encircle it, and they and Luo Zenan's large army formed a siege on Wuchang City.
Countless opportunities to severely damage the Qing army were wasted, and the original wing king Shi Dakai defended Wuchang, and Luo Zenan could not advance at all, but was repeatedly suppressed and retreated. However, Shi Dakai's departure not only made the armament here weak, but also gave Luo Zenan an opportunity to take advantage of it.
After the Taiping Army established the capital of Tianjing, almost no dead-hearted town defended a city, and they chose more to either abandon the city and retreat, or abandon it halfway and return without success.
It is also in this way that the Taiping Army has been running rampant in the jiangnan land for more than ten years, in fact, the city that can really have strategic significance is only Tianjing. In addition, almost all the cities in Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, and Jiangxi in the Jiangnan region have not been successfully taken, and even if they are successfully taken, they have not been able to hold on for a long time, but have deteriorated from the original active attack to a passive defensive stage step by step.
In November, Luo Zenan took advantage of this great opportunity to divide his troops into three ways and plot against Wuchang:
Logistics Army: Stationed in Jinkou, defending against the Taiping Army's surprise attack on the rear
Forward Army: Attack the southern flank of Wuchang City
Main army: attack the eastern flank of Wuchang City
At this point, the outskirts of Wuchang City were all Qing troops, and the entire vicinity of Wuchang City was under artillery fire, and the sounds of fighting and shouting were incessant, but Wuchang City was still as solid as a rock, as stable as Mount Tai, and there was no sign of being breached.
At the beginning of the sixth year of Xianfeng, Wuchang City was still firmly occupied by the Taiping Army, and Luo Zenan was still attacking bitterly.
Shi Dakai, who led the Taiping army into Jiangxi, wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of the main force of the Qing army to attack Wuchang and remove Zeng Guofan's stronghold in Nanchang. Prior to this, Shi Dakai led an army to attack the town of Zhangshu, and only two cities remained in the entire territory of Jiangxi, Nankang and Nancheng, and almost all the other cities were captured by the Taiping Army, the situation in Nanchang City was critical, and Zeng Guofan urgently ordered Hu Linyi and Luo Zenan to abandon the siege of Wuchang and rescue Nanchang.
However, Hu Linyi and Luo Zenan agreed that the siege of Wuchang City was long, and it was impossible to abandon it halfway and return without success, so they refused Zeng Guofan's request for help, and at the same time stepped up their attack on Wuchang City, hoping to wait until after the capture of Wuchang and directly rescue Nanchang.
Luo Zenan and Zeng Guofan had a deep friendship, and Luo Zenan knew that Zeng Guofan was in a difficult situation, and personally supervised the battle under the city of Wuchang, attacking the city day and night, and wanted to take Wuchang as soon as possible.
Wei Jun and Hong Renzheng, who were guarding wuchang city, broke out of the city and attacked Luo Zenan from the two flanks of the south and east of the city respectively, and the two sides quickly fought together outside the city, fighting several times, the Taiping army began to retreat, Luo Zenan attacked the city, and the horse rushed to the bottom of the city, was hit by gunfire, and unfortunately died.
These Qing troops who attacked Wuchang City also began to retreat one after another, and instead attacked along the Yangtze River.
However, even so, Zeng Guofan trapped in Nanchang City was still in a critical situation, and Shi Dakai, after leading his army to successfully capture the town of Zhangshu, was once again urgently transferred to Tianjing and sent to attack the Jiangnan camp. This also meant that the Taiping Army gave up the siege of Nanchang City and missed the fighter again.
In fact, during the taiping army's management of Jiangnan, countless opportunities were wasted in their hands, and they could have successfully taken Wuchang and Nanchang, two military towns of great strategic significance. However, Shi Dakai, who was truly capable in the Taiping Army, repeatedly ran for his life in various important towns, and eventually failed in vain.
Whether it is the Northern Expedition or the Western Expedition of the Laoshi Division, no matter how good the opportunity and how perfect the opportunity, the Taiping Army can always be unexpectedly lost, and all of this is sending the Taiping Army step by step into the abyss of destruction, which is irreversible.
This article is mapped in "Discover China", a map to share knowledge